So this week has been stressful...

This last week has been absolutely nuts for me. I got an email through from my estate agents letting me know that my rent is going up by £75pcm... 3 times what it normally increases by, and 33% more than the last 2 years. 

I sat there trying to work out how I was going to be able to afford this, when my electricity bill is also increasing, and my water bill. But not my wages, or my wifes incapacity payments.

we've only just recovered from yet another company claiming that she is working for them, despite them being a construction company based hundreds of miles from our location, causing our income to be negatively affected.

Then just before finishing my last shift I notice another email stating that my landlord is now considering selling the flat we live in to our council's housing association. I was panicked wondering how we would afford to move on such short notice. After speaking directly with my estate manager I found that the sale would include us in-situ, meaning we would be able to stay. But it has now put us on overdrive to try and find somewhere new.

But the stress incurred was anything but needed right now. So to help increase income, I have began uploading to Pond 5 again.

It's a one stop shop for royalty free stock assets for music, photo, and video production. It also pays it's artists to use their work as training data for AI generators, which I have agreed to (it has put food on my table multiple times) and the music I upload to it are not my commercial releases, so I can grant it's use without causing problems for my commercial work.

If you would like to have a look at what I have for sale, head over to:
https://www.pond5.com/artist/sam_heffernan

I also have a new song coming out where I try vocals once again, this time I appear to have had better results after some further training and practice in writing lyrics, as well as performance and mixing.
You can see the clip for that over on my Tiktok @swh89 or my youtube shorts:
https://youtube.com/shorts/a8PaqsVGKAM

And for a longer clip, please head over to my Ko-Fi and become a member for as little as $1pcm. Every little helps so please consider checking out what I have on offer.